Counter-Treating
by Tanthachon25
Summary: Tanth, Zero and the gang head to Ponyville for Nightmare Night. But surely Apple Bobbing, Trick-or-Treating and lucky dipping are too self-esteem sapping for them? And what happens when Tanth comes up with an intricate and 'cool' way of getting confectionery? A proverbial Candy Bowl for Zero Starlight, including OC fluff.


**Happy Halloween Everypony! This is a present, or possibly candy bowl equivalent to Zero Starlight. Hope I haven't butchered the characters too much.**

Considering their current activities, no-one in Ponyville looked up in time to see a silent object speeding through the Ionosphere, and when it touched down, it remained even more unnoticed. Sure, Derpy and Colgate accidently walked into it an hour after it landed, but remember, this was Nightmare Night, where anything can and probably did happen.

"I'm impressed that you got this baby over the badlands!" Tanth marvelled, as he stepped off the tail ramp of the Starstreak, Zero Starlight's personal craft. The human in question walked to the edge of the ramp, adjusting his long black Dracula cloak. He motioned to two other humans in the passenger compartment, and together the unicorn and three humans stepped onto the soft, Ponyville soil.

"By the way Tanth, I'm sorry I haven't made the introductions earlier." Zero said, as the four began walking into Ponyville. "This is Rempo," Zero gestured to a smaller, slighter person whose golden hair looked crystalline in Luna's moonlight. "And this is Troy" The taller man with very pale skin and light brown hair gave Tanth a little wave."

"Nice to meet you!" Tanth greeted, holding out his hoof to Troy. But instead of returning the greeting, Troy just simply nodded and shook Tanth's hoof. "Doesn't say much." Tanth noted. Troy held up a chalk board with the word 'applause' on it, and just to make the point, he started clapping very slowly. Rempo, Tanth and Zero all burst out laughing.

"Yeah, Troy's mute, but he's still a nice guy." Zero patted the man on the back, and Troy gave Tanth a warm smile. Zero looked down at the device on his wrist, where a GPS was displaying a large section of Ponyville's streets, with a blue flashing Icon placed at one of the buildings.

"So we're meeting Twilight and the gang at the library, that right?" Rempo asked, peeking over his shoulder at the device. Zero promptly playfully whacked him in the face. Tanth burst out laughing and Troy emitted a wheezy chuckle.

"No-one but Tanth and my IT technician gets to look at Gearie!" Zero growled, but it quickly became a laugh halfway through.

"Gearie?" Tanth asked, his voice monotone and his eyes locked on Zero. "So you've actually put a name to it then?"

"This is coming from the person who has named his sword, his horn and his eight bolter variants!" Zero mocked.

"And why is Tanth permitted to see Gearie?" Rempo asked. "Is there something going on between you?"

Tanth spun round to face Rempo, walking backwards with perfect ease. "Only that we're both badass, we're both pilots, we each have our own aircraft…and what was the other one Zero? It always slips my mind."

Zero put a finger to his chin, pretending to ponder the thought. "I really don't know, Tanth. Maybe it was the one about we're both frickin' awesome!"

The four burst out laughing again, and continued towards the library, which could be seen by now above the rooftops, silhouetted against the dying sunset. As they rounded a corner, and the whole library could now be seen, a supersonic orange Pegasus slammed into Rempo, knocking him off his feet. Rempo looked up into Scootaloo's grinning face. He only had a second to say "hello!" before Scootaloo kissed him full on the mouth.

Zero facepalmed, Troy looked away, embarrassed, and Tanth pointed at them and yelled "Look out! It's a couple!" causing several other ponies to look at them. Rempo slowly got to his feet, glaring daggers at Tanth, but the unicorn seemed to be invulnerable to it.

"Thank you for spoiling that." Rempo glared, But Tanth just shrugged the comment off.

"That's what I do, it's a habit. Don't take it personally." He reassured, turning to see a group of ponies walking towards them. He nudged Zero and whispered in his ear. "So which one's Twilight?" he asked.

"That would be me." A lavender Unicorn walked out of the group towards Zero. "Long time, no see." At this, Zero blushed and looked down at his shoes nervously.

"Apologies for not calling. There's not much free time down south, what with the whole war thing." Zero murmured apologetically. Twilight brushed aside his excuses, and pecked him on the cheek.

"All I need is the absence of a letter telling me you've been killed or missing in action." Twilight smiled, pecking him on the cheek again.

"Hello…" Fluttershy smiled, walking over to Troy and nuzzling up beside him. "I've missed you."

'Same. Life's not the same without you' Troy scribbled on his board, and Fluttershy put her hand over her chest, tears welling up in her eyes. Troy gently leaned in, and kissed her gently.

"Starwind?!" Tanth cried in amazement, catching a glimpse of a dark brown Pegasus hiding at the back of the group. "Is that you?" The stallion waked forward, before saluting smartly.

"Former Sergeant DeHanovich reporting for duty, Sir!" Starwind said with military precision, before lowering his hoof. Tanth sighed.

"You realise you don't have to do that, right?" Tanth asked. "Nor did you have to back when you were a pilot." He smiled, and embraced Starwind. "It's been far too long, old friend." The two broke away, as Rempo and Scootaloo rolled past them, giggling. Tanth rolled his eyes. "I feel all left out now; the others seem to be completely down with the mares, as it were." The two stallions looked at each-other, before shuffling apart a little, looking down at the floor and kicking stones awkwardly. Suddenly, they burst out laughing.

"Yeah, I know what you're thinking!" Starwind laughed, wiping a tear from his eye. "Oh, by the way, have you met my sister?" The stallion motioned to another Pegasus, who was deep in conversation with Rarity. She was dressed in a set of brown overalls, with a large backpack made up of lots of dials, knobs and other miscellaneous pieces. Some sort of gun rested on a hook on one of the shoulders, with a pipe leading into the backpack. "Her name's Moonpetal,

"Who you gonna call?" Tanth muttered.

"GHOSTBUSTERS!" Pinkie Pie squealed, jumping through Tanth's field of vision and causing the two stallions to jump back in surprise.

"Don't worry, that's Pinkie for you." Starwind reassured the unicorn, who was now looking positively in shock. By the way, nice costume. Are you supposed to be a hobo or something?"

Tanth looked down at the tattered jacket, and winked at Starwind. "Fire it up, Hammerhorn." He commanded, looking cross-eyed at his horn, which started to glow. Tanth's appearance began to become ghostly white and transparent, and he began to float off the ground. Pinkie screamed in terror and Zero's jaw dropped so far, Tanth thought it might fall off. Starwind laughed in amazement.

"That's the coolest thing I've ever seen!" He laughed, watching as Tanth barrel-rolled in mid-air. A few of the others were gathered round him, laughing and pointing at the spectacle.

"I think we should start going now, people. The fair will have started by now!" Twilight called. Drawing their eyes away from Tanth, who had powered down the spell, the group started walking towards the Central Square, where a huge array of tents stood, each with a different activity outside. As the eight mares rushed to the tents, squealing in excitement, Tanth pulled the three humans and Starwind back.

"I don't think I'm alone when I say I feel far too old and mature for this kind of stuff." He whispered, pulling the others into a scrum. "So what I propose adds a little bit of fun to trick-or-treating."

"Tricking by default?" Rempo asked.

"Counter-treating," Tanth whispered, and began explaining the plan.

"Thank ya'll! Applebloom called, as Mrs Cake the door of Sugarcube corner closed. Applebloom, Twist, Sweetie Belle, Dinky and Archer trotted happily down the path and onto the road towards Celestial Chocolates, the chocolate shop Moonpetal ran. Meanwhile, hiding on the roof of aforesaid shop was its co-owner, dressed in a black spy-getup and harness, with a long bungee rope attached to it. Zero was standing higher up on the roof, holding the other end, which was also tied round the chimney for good measure.

"Phase one is go!" Starwind's radio earpiece which had been lent to him by Zero, crackled into life, and the door swung open in the shop below them. As the fillies began walking cautiously into the dark shop, Starwind took a deep breath and swan-dived off the roof. He fell for only a millisecond, before he rapidly slowed less than two feet from Twist, who was just entering the shop. Starwind grabbed three Mars bars from her open saddlebags before the cord twanged him back up onto the roof. Chortling, he plopped the treats into a bag held by Zero, and as a roar (Generated by Rempo) boomed out from the shop, the fillies ran out, screaming in fear and excitement. Starwind leapt off the building again, just quick enough to grab a packet of Haribo from Sweetie Belle before the rope went taut again.

"We're terrible, aren't we?" Starwind laughed, hoof-bumping Zero as they fell about laughing.

On the other side of town, near the fringe of the Everfree Forest, Tanth was hiding in a cluster of bushes, waiting for a group of Cloudsdale stallions to approach. They were so busy chatting and scoffing their treats that they didn't notice the hum of Tanth's horn powering up. With a standard ghostly 'wooooooooooooooo', Tanth rose slowly out of the bushes, causing the stallions to rear up in fright and run for the safety of the town. En route, they unknowingly passed Troy, dressed as a tree and using a branch to hook a pumpkin-shaped pot of sweets off one of the stallion's back. Chortling wheezily, he carried the pot over to the bushes where Tanth was powering down the spell.

This pranking went on all night, and by the time the moon was high in the sky, the three humans and two stallions were happily bringing a sizeable haul to the statue of Nightmare Moon buried deep in the Everfree Forest. Tanth was dragging a sack overflowing with what he called 'small arms confectionery', something which the others thought slightly strange. Rempo was carrying three pumpkin pots of candy while the others had simply stuffed it into any container about their person, or in the case of Starwind, their pony.

"It's a bit of a weird tradition, donating some of our candy to a statue." Rempo huffed, looking at how much they had gathered.

"It's supposed to ward off vengeful moon-goddesses." Tanth grinned, as they reached the statue's pedestal. Troy put down a pot and Tanth emptied some of the sack onto the ground. The group looked up at the imposing statue of the Mare in the Moon.

"Creepy, isn't it? Zero remarked, brushing his fingers against the figure's stone hoof.

Suddenly, there was a crack of lightning that made all five of them jump. Zero found the stone hoof replaced by flesh and bone, and with a terrified gulp, he looked into the blazing eyes of Nightmare Moon. Rempo screamed in terror, and the three humans and two ponies bolted for the treeline. But the vengeful moon goddess was quicker. She pounced on Starwind and galloped into Rempo, knocking him to the ground. Zero turned, ad saw Nightmare Moon baring down on him. His back met a tree, and Zero was pinned there with terror as she drew closer.

"TAKE HIM!" Zero yelled in terror, grabbing Tanth and holding him out like a meat shield. "HIS SOUL IS FRESHER!" Tanth stared into the goddess' face, looking absolutely terrified. But before anyone could make a move, his horn glowed a bright white, and he became translucent, floating slowly upwards. Nightmare Moon's gaze followed him, looking mildly interested. Zero tried to grab his hooves, but Tanth was already substantially airborne. Nightmare Moon's gaze snapped back to Zero.

"Nice horsy?" Zero whimpered, getting slightly hysterical. Nightmare Moon drew back and roared into Zero's terrified face. All four of them dropped the entirety of their haul and bolted through the trees in terror. They didn't stop until they had reached the Starstreak and its engines had fired up.

Tanth gently floated back down to where Princess Luna was delicately starting on their haul. He watched as the Starstreak rose up above the trees and blasted southwards towards the Solar Badlands.

"They appear to have forgotten you." Luna commented, watching the burning comet streak out of sight, trailing a fiery tail.

"Yes…" Tanth sighed, sitting down next to Luna, who offered him a snickers bar. The unicorn took it, and began to munch dolefully on it. There was a long pause, while Tanth finished the bar.

"Would you like me to get you home?" Luna asked, turning to him.

"…Yes."


End file.
